Well, Mark, it wasn’t last year. And it wasn’t the season before that. You have to go back almost three full calendar years to mid-November, 2006 when the Mavs beat Memphis (89-84), Charlotte (93-85) and Washington (107-80) from Nov. 18-21.

Nice numbers, but the bottom line is that this team – and almost every team – usually wins when it holds an opponent to 85 points or less. Last year, the Mavs were 7-0 when they did that trick.

What’s more significant to me is that the Mavs have won three consecutive games despite not shooting better than 41.7 percent in any game this season. Last year, when they shot 42.5 percent of worse from the floor, they were 3-25. In many ways, just like the Rangers, this offense has traditionally been so good that if it gets even a touch of defense, it wins. Since that rather rough season opener, the Mavs have won as much because of defense as anything.

That is most definitely a change in this team. Maybe it’s only a one-week aberration, but, at least for a week, you have to figure the attention to defense is paying off for this team.